Reid had the kind of political imagination, flair and charisma which is sorely needed today as the now shrunken left faces up to the task of whether it can create an effective "coalition of resistance" against the coalition government's cuts and privatisation programme. Reid secured his place in the pantheon of popular revolts because, along with fellow Communist party members and fellow travellers such as Jimmy Airlie and Sammy Barr, he led not only one of the most important postwar struggles but one which did not end in glorious defeat.

Instead, the revolt ended after 18 months of hard struggle in a stunning victory with the nationalisation of the yards. This was one of the first nails in Edward Heath's political coffin, as he became a lame duck prime minister who was forced to make umpteen U-turns.

The success and significance of the Upper Clyde shipbuilders' struggle was threefold. First, faced with redundancy and closure, there was an innovation in tactics. The action was not a strike that put the workers outside the gates. Instead, the work-in maintained control of the yards, the half-built ships and equipment by occupying them. The work-in was also a challenge to the employers and government by continuing the building of the ships. The workers showed they could not be categorised as mindless militants or layabouts.

Second, the campaign did not just confine itself to the yards or other workplaces. While there was a mass sympathy strike, the campaign garnered support throughout communities becoming a movement as the ramifications of closure sunk in. These communities demonstrated this solidarity and self-interest in huge public marches showing the campaign had built a robust alliance of workers and citizens.

Third, there was the language and discourse of the work-in. While the campaign could have easily and explicitly latched itself onto the heritage of "Red Clydeside", instead it deployed other resources. One was that shipbuilding was an iconic industry in the west of Scotland. It was said that men too were built in the yards. This was fully utilised as was the emerging shape of progressive Scottish national identity, whereby the sense of a grievance being done to the whole of Scotland was disseminated.

Reid is acknowledged as the leading architect of these strategies and tactics. He helps provide the left with valuable lessons for today if they want the credibility and respect that is needed to create and lead mass struggles.

These are: talk in a language that workers and citizens understand; don't necessarily repeat the forms of what has gone before; frame the salient issues in a way that relates to what will work best for the given situation and era; understand that coalitions need to be built with wide arrays of groups outside the usual suspects; and do so in a way that is non-sectarian.

This was what was also done last time round with the poll tax, and these kinds of skills and imagination are desperately needed if the radical left is to be able to step up to the plate this time round.